'The Chinese government did everything in their power to destroy me'

Follow the author of this article

Mark Kitto is a British magazine publisher and writer who left his home country for China. A former British Army Captain, Mark originally worked as a metal trader before starting a successful media empire publishing English-language listings magazines, similar to Time Out.

But after seven years building up his business, Mark had it seized by the Chinese government and was thrust into redundancy. He told Prospectmagazine in 2012: "During the course of my magazine business, my state-owned competitor (enemy is more accurate) told me in private that they studied every issue I produced so they could learn from me. They appreciated my contribution to Chinese media. They proceeded to do everything in their power to destroy me."

The last time the Telegraph spoke to Mark was in 2011, when he told us about how he lost his career and his subsequent thoughts on moving back to Britain. He's married to Joanna, from Guangzhou, and they have two children, Isabel and Tristan. The family is now settled back in the UK and Mark's book, That’s China (Fortysix Books), was published on November 5. He spoke to us about the decisions that brought him to this point.

Why did you decide to leave China for good?

Fundamentally, it was a result of my thoughts for the children. They were approaching the age when they needed a good education, a stable, healthy environment and free, liberal surroundings. We simply needed a better place for them to grow up and I don’t believe China offered any of these things. The education there is certainly not good. There was no way for us to have them in an international school.

Other push factors were that I had to get on with myself. I had to concentrate on my life and get my career back on track. I was running a coffee shop and writing another book, so I was living a life, but it was one I saw having little future. Writing doesn’t pay well and I deliberately didn’t want to grow my business. I’d done that before and seen where it got me.

Finally, China is in a very delicate position with regards to its society, country, economy. It’s all potentially unstable and I truly believe there will be some socio-political upheaval in the country soon. It was best to be out – no matter how scary starting again in England was.

Tell us about your new book.

It’s a business thriller and a true story. It’s all about how I built my media empire despite the drama and the Kafkaesque government. It’s about the total contradiction of them: half the time they thank you for what you’re doing for Chinese business and society and the other half of the time they’re trying to shut you down. Eventually, of course, I had the entire thing taken away from me by the communist government. I lost everything. There is no happy ending to this story unfortunately. I was so close to getting away with it. I got further than Rupert Murdoch. I was so close to securing it, but someone betrayed me. I won’t tell you who it was – that’d ruin the story – but suffice it to say it wasn’t one of the local Chinese.

What did you take from the experience?

I actually wrote the book 10 years ago. It’s an odd thing because I’m editing and rewriting bits of it now alongside building another business. It’s a confidence boost because I’m reminding myself of how much I achieved, but on the other hand, reminding myself how relentlessly difficult it was and how I have to go through it again.

I learnt that doing business in China is too dangerous. You might make a profit but it won’t be a fair profit. You’ll be paying in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. If you really do just want to make money though, trade in China.

Would you encourage people to relocate to China?

I’d say know China and learn about it. I personally disagree that it will be the next global superpower. But it is important to understand it. I’d encourage people instead to visit it to learn its history and culture. It’s a joke among expats that in the first week in China, you could write a book, in the first month in China, you could write an article. By the first year in China, you could write nothing. The longer you’re there, the less you understand the country.

The pollution there is off the scale. It’s a society obsessed with money. The education is diabolical. It’s a one-party state that has produced an unfair society. The power is absolutely feudal, medieval. So really, I’d say move there if you want to study or make money trading.

Why did your original American publisher drop the book? Was it due to the scandal they thought it’d provoke?

It is a controversial book. Having told me how delighted they were to take on something controversial, something that would get people talking, they did a complete turn around. The publisher sent a manuscript to the new Beijing office who said, please don’t publish this. We’ll get nowhere. It criticises those above us – the Chinese media – and it’ll make our lives a living hell.

They admitted sheepishly that that was the reason for dropping it.

But you eventually managed to get it published. Why now?

It’s published now because it’s an important story. It goes behind the scenes on how the government interferes with private and foreign business. I was right up there with the top people in the Chinese media and have the pertinent experience to share. No one has told the story of the process by which business is destroyed by the Chinese government. The story in-between the start up and the fall. That is my story.

How does it feel being back in the UK after all that?

In a word: wonderful. It’s so nice to be in a fair, legal, open, liberal society. I’m standing out right now under blue skies. You wouldn’t have them that time of year in China. My children are completely transformed. I’ll admit, they are in a private school, but their attitude to education has done a complete 180. They’ve blossomed. I could hardly get them to go before and it was unpleasant sending them. Now they understand it’s not the Japanese that are the arch enemy, it’s the French.